Ocean freight rates are down, so why aren’t prices on shelves dropping?

Businesses are finally getting some relief with supply chain costs. But shoppers probably won’t see any additional savings this holiday season, experts say.

The cost of shipping freight containers across the Pacific Ocean has cooled from record highs hit during the pandemic, when demand for goods manufactured in Asia outstripped supply. At its peak in mid-September 2021, the average rate to secure a container on a ship from Asia to the U.S. West Coast reached $20,586, a 15-fold increase from early January 2020, according to data from Freightos Baltic Index.